Early Science Commissioning Results of the Sub-micron Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy Beamline (SRX) in the Field of Materials Science and Engineering

Beamline commissioning activities at the Sub-micron Resolution Spectroscopy Beamline, SRX, one of the project beamlines of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, began in December 2014. SRX is a hard x-ray microprobe beamline. The technical capabilities presented in this paper include scanning micro-fluorescence microscopy (mu-XRF) and x-ray absorption near-edge structure (mu-XANES) spectroscopy. The high flux KBs station with sub-micron resolution in the step-scanning mode has been commissioned with results presented in this paper. Capabilities under commissioning/planning include XRF-XANES stack imaging, a high resolution station (sub-100 nm), x-ray fluorescence tomography, integration of Maia detector, and fly-scan mode. Early science commissioning results from SRX in the materials science field are presented in this paper. Topics being studied include nanoporous materials for energy conversion/storage, thin film materials for electronics, degradation of paint materials for art conservation, and grain boundary segregation in structural materials. On December 7th 2015, SRX officially became a user-operational beamline and started accepting general users. The users of interest are encouraged to contact the beamline staff and submit General User Proposals.